Can't Pass By a Crying Child
Anomalies are divided into four threat grades.
Normal-grade, Danger-grade, Disaster-grade, Calamity-grade.
A single Awakener can handle a Normal-grade. Danger-grades require team deployment. From Disaster-grade onward, provincial alerts are issued, and special forces are mobilized.
Calamity-grade is different.
The mere appearance triggers a city-wide evacuation alert. The response force includes at least multiple A-rank hunters in a joint operation. Civilian casualties are highly likely, and in the worst case, an entire city could be wiped out.
Historically, subduing a Calamity-grade anomaly has taken an average of 72 hours, with average casualties in the triple digits.
Lee Seojin was one of the hunters dispatched to face that Calamity-grade.
"...Could you repeat that one more time?"
Management Bureau conference room.
Sitting in front of Lee Seojin, who was giving the briefing, were three bureau executives. One of them took off his glasses and wiped them as he asked again.
Lee Seojin repeated calmly.
"The Calamity-grade anomaly 'Black Dog' was already neutralized by the time we arrived on scene. A specific civilian had made bare-handed contact with the anomaly, which had completely lost its aggression."
"...Bare-handed."
"Yes."
"Contact— what form exactly?"
"She was petting its head."
The conference room fell silent.
The reason was clear. If this report was true, it defied common sense. If false, an A-rank hunter was falsifying an official briefing.
Neither was a normal situation.
"Did you confirm the civilian's identity?"
"Yes."
Lee Seojin swiped her tablet.
Name, age, address. And hospital discharge records.
"She was hospitalized due to a mana backlash during her Awakening Test and was discharged the same day as the incident. Her awakening ability is unmeasured. The test center also reported inability to classify it."
"We don't know her ability?"
"She doesn't know it herself, and it couldn't be measured."
The eldest-looking executive crossed his arms.
"Hunter Lee Seojin. You saw it with your own eyes on site, right?"
"Yes."
"I'll ask for your honest assessment. Did the subject intentionally neutralize the Calamity-grade, or was it accidental?"
Lee Seojin fell silent for a moment.
Memories of the scene flashed through her mind. The woman petting the Calamity-grade anomaly's head in the rain. What she said when the hunter team arrived.
'It's so docile.'
"...I judge it was accidental."
"Basis?"
"She didn't know it was an anomaly. She called it a dog."
Silence again.
The executive who had been cleaning his glasses put them back on and spoke.
"We'll designate her as an observation target. Hunter Lee Seojin, take charge of monitoring and protecting the Awakener for the time being."
"...Me?"
"Isn't the eyewitness from the scene the best fit?"
There was no room for argument. Or rather, she could argue but didn't want to.
Honestly, Lee Seojin was curious too. Just what was that girl?
The next day.
Lee Seojin began surveillance from the rooftop of a building near the target's residence.
A dense one-room apartment district on the outskirts of Seoul. Lots of convenience stores and street food joints nearby, probably due to the college area. An ordinary neighborhood. Not the kind of place you'd expect an Awakener who neutralized a Calamity-grade to live.
'Maybe it's a front.'
Lee Seojin didn't let her guard down.
Neutralizing a Calamity-grade bare-handed. If the anomaly had lost its will to fight, the woman's combat power could be at least S-rank or higher. There were fewer than ten S-rank Awakeners in the entire country. For someone like that to have never once pinged the bureau's radar?
The unmeasured ability was suspicious too. Maybe she was deliberately hiding it.
'...I need to be fully prepared.'
As Lee Seojin tightened her tension—
The target emerged from her home.
Slippers. Hoodie and training pants. Hair tied up messily, shopping basket in hand.
'...'
She went into the convenience store. Bought two triangle kimbaps, a milk, a can of tuna. Came out.
On the way back, she spotted an alley cat, stopped, opened the tuna can, and set it down for the cat.
"You don't have an owner either? Why are there so many strays these days."
She was talking to the cat.
Lee Seojin lowered her binoculars.
'...A bit much for a disguise.'
An S-rank or higher Awakener shuffling in slippers to the convenience store, feeding alley cats tuna, and picking tuna mayo kimbap while at it.
Of course, it could be thorough acting. Lee Seojin was a ten-year veteran hunter with a good eye for people.
This felt... off for acting.
She was just someone who'd gone out to buy triangle kimbap.
'...So she really petted the Calamity-grade without knowing?'
That thought was far more terrifying.
Lee Seojin mentally drafted her report. 'Target shows no unusual behavior. Routine outing.' One line done.
Who knew the first day of surveillance would end this anticlimactically.
Confirming the target had returned home, Lee Seojin took a sip of coffee. It looked like the day would pass peacefully.
Then, the mana detector beeped.
The compact device on her wrist reacted to anomalies nearby, and the reading was no joke.
Danger-grade.
'In this residential area?'
Anomalies could appear anywhere. But a Danger-grade popping up in the middle of a housing district wasn't common.
As Lee Seojin checked the direction—
The target's front door opened.
The woman came out with a trash bag, shuffling in slippers toward the alley. Probably to throw it out.
'Wait, that's—'
The direction the detector indicated.
Lee Seojin's body moved first. She vaulted the rooftop railing, scaled down the wall. Quickly. But without drawing attention.
By the time she reached the alley—
It was already too late.
I'd gone out to throw away the trash.
Just moved here, so I didn't know the neighborhood's collection schedule yet. Figured leaving it out in the evening would do, so out I went.
There was a kid huddled in the alley corner.
Looked about elementary school age. Knees hugged to her chest, head down. Shoulders shaking—she was crying.
Her clothes were filthy, torn in places, and her face had some scratches.
"... "
I set down the trash bag.
I can't just walk past something like this. Never could. Even as a guy, I couldn't ignore a crying kid on the street. No reason that'd change now.
"Hey, you okay?"
I crouched down beside her.
The kid looked up. Eyes red and bloodshot. Must've cried a lot.
"You hurt anywhere? Where's your mom and dad?"
No answer. She just stared at me.
...Kinda weird. An elementary kid alone in an alley like this at night.
But pity hit first, harder than suspicion.
"Don't cry, okay?"
I stroked her head.
She flinched. Just like the black dog yesterday.
Reaction like it was her first time being touched.
"...Gotta be careful so it doesn't hurt."
I avoided the scratched spots, stroked gently. Untangled her matted hair with my fingers.
Her shoulders stopped shaking. Crying seemed to stop.
But the way she looked up at me was... odd. Like, what's this? Face that didn't get why someone was being nice to her.
"Hungry?"
I rummaged in my pocket. One triangle kimbap left from the convenience store. Tuna mayo. The one I'd saved for myself.
...Oh well.
"Here, eat this."
I peeled off the wrapper and handed it over.
She took it, peered inside, took a bite.
...She ate like it was the best thing ever.
Like a newborn animal with its first food. Clumsy but eager. Rice grains on her mouth, didn't even wipe them.
"Eat slowly. No one's gonna take it."
I stood and looked around.
For a missing child report this late in the neighborhood, police station? Or call 112 faster?
"Don't go."
She grabbed my pant leg.
Tiny hand. But strong grip. The fabric stretched taut.
"Not going anywhere. Just gonna make a call."
"...Don't go."
She said it again. Voice small, but the desperation in it wasn't.
...Can't ignore this either.
"Okay, I won't."
I crouched again.
She didn't let go of my pant leg. Gripped tighter even.
"... "
Yesterday a big dog, today a lost kid.
Why do I keep picking stuff up?
...Pretty sure I read somewhere that picking up strays on the street isn't a good habit.
"Let's go to my place first. I'll give you more food."
She nodded.
One hand clutching the triangle kimbap, the other still not letting go of my clothes.
On the way home, at the front door, the huge black dog was lying there. Tail wagging faintly.
"...And why are you here?"
The dog sniffed the air.
The kid peeked at the dog from behind me, then hid. The dog glanced at her, then looked away. No interest in each other.
"...Come in, both of you."
A sigh escaped, but I opened the door.
Lee Seojin watched the whole scene from the alley's end.
Danger-grade anomaly.
Code name unspecified. Humanoid. Predator-type that absorbs life force from approaching organisms.
By the time she arrived, all plants within a 3-meter radius were withered. Potted flowers, moss on walls, weeds in pavement cracks—all drained of moisture, brittle and dry.
A few bugs were outright dead.
Lee Seojin had moved to engage immediately upon seeing the range.
But the target approached first.
No time to stop her. Or more precisely, intervening might've been riskier.
She'd seen the pattern against the Calamity-grade before. Contact with the target pacified the anomaly. Separation destabilized it. The Black Dog had proven that.
If she interfered and stimulated it—a Danger-grade rampaging in a residential area would cause civilian casualties.
So she observed.
The result of observation:
The target stroked the Danger-grade anomaly's head.
Fed it triangle kimbap.
Took it home.
The Calamity-grade Black Dog was lying at the front door, and she let that in too.
One Calamity-grade, one Danger-grade.
Both inside that tiny one-room.
Lee Seojin activated her communicator.
"Management Bureau, additional report."
She caught her breath, then continued.
"The target has neutralized another Danger-grade anomaly."
"Method?"
"Fed it triangle kimbap."
Three seconds of silence from the other end.
"...Could you repeat that one more time?"
Lee Seojin was already hearing this for the second time.
"Made bare-handed contact with the Danger-grade anomaly, then administered convenience store triangle kimbap. Its aggression completely vanished. Currently, one Calamity-grade and one Danger-grade are cohabiting in the target's residence."
"...Target's intent confirmed?"
"...Probably just fed a crying kid."
Silence again.
Lee Seojin leaned on the rooftop railing, gazing at the target's one-room window.
Lights on. Small shadows moving behind the curtains. Probably in the kitchen doing something.
The person who'd brought home a Calamity-grade and a Danger-grade anomaly was making dinner.
...How do I even write this in the surveillance report?
Lee Seojin went to sip her coffee, then realized it had gone cold.